The invention relates to a sludge collector for treating wastewater, and more particularly to a bracket assembly for use in securing a collector flight supporting track within a sludge collector.
Sludge collectors are commonly used in wastewater treatment plants to scrape settled sludge from the bottom of a settling tank and to skim floating waste off the surface of the wastewater. The sludge collector tanks are typically made of concrete and include a number of flights which are usually elongated members that extend across the width of the tank. The flights are typically made from pultruded fiberglass that is formed in various channel-shaped profiles. The flights are connected at opposing ends to conveyor chains which carry the flights in a circuit along the bottom of the tank to perform the scraping operation and over the surface of the wastewater to perform the skimming operation.
As the flights move along the bottom of the tank, the flights are supported by tracks extending along the tank bottom. As the flights move along the surface of the tank, the opposing ends of the flights are supported by tracks mounted on the side walls of the tank. The portions of the flights which engage the track at the bottom and side walls of the tank are subject to wear such that low friction wear shoes are attached to the flights at each point where the flights contact the support tracks.
The support tracks are secured to the walls of the treatment tanks by brackets that are typically useable with only a single-track configuration. Since there are several different types of support tracks that are commonly used to support collector flights within treatment tanks, manufacturers are required to produce numerous different brackets resulting in increased production costs. Although the assortment of prior art brackets adequately support the many different types of track, it would be desirable to have a single bracket that works with numerous different track configurations.
The lateral position of prior art supporting bracket assemblies is fixed relative to the walls of the treatment tank once the brackets are secured to the walls. The fixed lateral position makes it difficult for prior art brackets to support collector flights of varying length. Therefore, it would be desirable if the bracket assemblies which support the collector flights were adjustable so the bracket assemblies could be modified depending on the application.
The present invention relates to a bracket for securing collector flight support tracks that are used in sludge collectors. The mounting bracket is suitable for use with a variety of support track configurations.
The mounting bracket is part of an assembly that includes a pair of molded hubs and a connecting member that extends between the pair of hubs. The hubs are preferably constructed so as to facilitate mounting one of the hubs in a number of alternative positions on a wall of a collector tank while the other hub is configured to be secured to a variety of different types of commonly used collector flight supporting tracks. The hubs are preferably identical to one another, and the connecting member is adjustable in order to permit the bracket assembly to be used with collector flights having their return wear shoes mounted at different distances from the tank walls.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon review of the following detailed description, claims, and drawings.